‘Water powered’ sports car with almost 1,000km range is on the horizon

A new sports car is to be shown at the upcoming International Geneva Auto Show (IGAW) that claims to be powered by a ‘water battery’ and has a range of 965km (600 miles).

The nanoFlowcell QUANTiNO car is designed as a futuristic sports car that would definitely stand out, not just for its brash appearance, but the fact it is powered by a fuel largely sourced from water and other non-polluting minerals.

The technology has been in development for some time now and is based off the concept that the car’s energy would be sourced from a water that is mixed with two different types of salt-water solutions that could be easily refillable and would have a longer lifespan than lithium-ion batteries.

According to Gas2, the QUANTiNO will have two 45-gallon (204l) tanks to store the salinated water that can be refilled just like a petrol-powered car.

But perhaps the most incredible achievement would be that the car will be able to operate at just 48V of electricity, compared with most electric vehicles which can only operate somewhere in the region of 300V.

Image via nanoFlowcell

Other details of the car reveal it will have 136 horsepower to give it enough umph to reach speeds of just under 200km/h (120m/h) and will be a two-door four-seater.

On top of all this, the company claims it will do all this over distances better than many petrol-powered cars with its nearly 1,000km (600 miles) range.

nanoFlowcell’s CTO Nunzio La Vecchia, however, said the car is not just a pipe dream or an engineer’s fantasy, but a future reality.

“The QUANTiNO is an electric vehicle for everyone. Affordable and featuring an extravagant, unique design,” he said. “It is not just a concept vehicle – it will become reality in the course of this year. We will be driving the QUANTiNO in 2015. And we aim to attain approval for road use very quickly.”